A storied mid-century masterpiece in New Canaan recalls its famous sibling, The Glass House

As one of the wealthiest towns in the U.S., New Canaan, Connecticut, calls to mind New England colonials and farmhouses, whopping estates and towering Tudor mansions.

But the town is also known for being a hotbed of modern architecture. In the 1940s, it became home to the so-called “Harvard Five,” a group of architects: Marcel Breuer, John M. Johansen, Eliot Noyes, Landis Gores and Philip Johnson. Most famously, it’s the town with Johnson’s Glass House.

This context alone makes it a big deal that Johnson’s Wiley House is currently on the market for $12 million. But to add another layer of history: It was said to be one of Johnson’s most personal designs, and the work that most closely resembles The Glass House, his 1949 masterpiece that is now a museum. (Also of note: German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe stayed in the Wiley House, according to Franz Schulze’s biography of Johnson).

The Wiley House is named for the owner who first commissioned it. , Robert C. Wiley, a real estate developer with a passion for modern design, and Johnson together concocted the prototype for the “Wiley Spec House,” a home designed to be mass-produced. Though the house never came to be built, the Wiley House was completed in 1952—one of only six Johnson houses in New Canaan, including the architect’s own.

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Johnson selected the site for the Wiley House himself. “What most people don’t know about Johnson,” explains listing agent Inger Stringfellow, “is that he was also a great landscape architect.” The plot’s rolling hills and the grove of hickory trees appealed to him because they both reminded him of the topography of the Glass House.

In the years since the Wiley House was completed, it changed hands several times, with owners including the Archdiocese of New York. Its current owner purchased the property in 1994, and is responsible for the sweeping renovation that not only brought the house up to 21st-Century living standards, but also transformed the barn into an art gallery.

A 2008 renovation was quite an undertaking: They re-contoured the earth to create a landscape with more privacy, built a two-car garage, upgraded all mechanicals in the home, replaced all the windows with double-panes, and gave the home five full bathrooms. They also built a pool house right into the hill, which has its own kitchen and bath.

The “art barn” was a project that originated with plans drawn up by Philip Johnson, which never materialized. When the current owner decided to see it through, he tapped Roger Ferris to complete the renovation. Now, with its 24-foot ceilings, stained wood exterior, and zinc roof, the pristine barn is home to works by Damien Hirst, Jenny Saville, and several more heavy-hitters in the contemporary art scene (they’re not for sale).

The Stats

The house has four bedrooms, plus one sitting room that has been converted from a fifth bedroom, and five bathrooms. There is a 4,620- square-foot “art barn,” adjoined to a pool house with a full bathroom and kitchen. The property totals 5,616 square feet and sits on 6.33 acres.

Celebrity Cachet

The home has been written about in several book and magazines: “Midcentury Houses Today” (Lorenzo Ottaviani, Jeffrey Matz, Cristina A. Ross, Michael Biondo. Monacelli Press, 2014); “The New York Times Magazine;” “Venü Magazine.”

Listing agents: Inger Stringfellow and John Hersam, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty